By Gina Passarella
Of the Legal Staff
Dechert appears to be the first Pennsylvania firm to announce spring bonuses -- an added bonus a number of New York-based firms have given this year on top of traditional year-end bonuses to associates and counsel.
Legal blog "Above the Law" reported Monday that incoming CEO Daniel O’Donnell sent out an announcement from himself and current Chairman Barton J. Winokur alerting certain associates and counsel that they would receive the additional spring bonus.
A Dechert spokeswoman confirmed the information on Above the Law was accurate.
The bonuses range from $2,500 for the class of 2010 to $20,000 for the class of 2006 or earlier, according to the memo posted on Above the Law.
"We are pleased to announce that we will be paying supplemental bonuses to all U.S. associates and counsel who received a full scale bonus or greater in 2010 and whose annualized productivity was equal or greater to 1900 billable, pro-bono and other firm-credited hours during 2010," Winokur and O'Donnell said in the joint statement. "Associates in the Class of 2010 will be paid a supplemental bonus, without regard to hours."
Here is the Spring Bonus Schedule:
Class of 2010: $2,500
Class of 2009: $7,500
Class of 2008: $10,000
Class of 2007: $15,000
Class of 2006 and higher: $20,000
Winokur detailed the year-end bonuses for U.S. associates in a February 2 e-mail, according to Above the Law. Those bonuses were paid to all U.S. associates who were “reasonably busy” in 2010 and who were evaluated as performing in the manner expected by Dechert for their level, according to the memo.
Here is the Year-End Bonus Schedule:
Class of 2009: $7,500
Class of 2008: $10,000
Class of 2007: $15,000
Class of 2006: $20,000
Class of 2005: $25,000
Class of 2004: $30,000
Class of 2003 and more senior: $35,000
"In applying a 'reasonably busy' standard, we emphasize again that we do not want our associates working to a specific number of hours," Winokur said in the February e-mail. "Accordingly, we did not award bonuses based on a sharp cut-off of a particular number of hours. We also are aware that hours are not the only way to measure intensity of effort, quality of performance and level of responsibility. Having said this, we believe that an associate who is reasonably busy would normally be performing legal work for clients, both billable and pro bono, in the range of 1,950 annualized hours."
Gina Passarella is the senior reporter for The Legal. She can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter: @GPassarellaTLI
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